With yesterday being Valentine's Day and all, we thought it would be appropriate to use this opportunity to make a very public lovenote to a bunch of spent hens in the North Country and to send out word that we're coming to swoop them away, Prince Charming-style.

Because egg-laying chicken breeds have been genetically selected exclusively for maximum egg production, they don't grow fast or large enough to be raised profitably for meat. Therefore, male chicks of egg-laying breeds are of no economic value, and they are discarded on the day they hatch.

The female birds' confined space doesn't allow the ladies to stretch their wings or legs, and they cannot fulfill normal behavioral patterns or social needs like scratching in the dirt, chasing bugs, and taking extremely adorable, endearing dust baths:

As you can imagine, constantly rubbing against the wire cages means these birds lose a lot of feathers; and it's not uncommon for the ladies to have lots of bruises and abrasions. In order to reduce injuries resulting from excessive pecking—a behavior that occurs when confined hens are bored, stressed, or frustrated—most (but not all) laying hens have part of their beaks cut off.

Laying more than 250 eggs in one year, a laying hen's body is severely taxed (whose wouldn't be?!). They suffer from "fatty liver syndrome" and "cage layer fatigue"; and, percentage-wise, after about a year most hens in the egg industry are considered "spent" and sent to slaughter. The hens who did nothing but lay eggs usually end up in soups, pot pies, dog food, or similar low-grade chicken meat products.

But the truth is, these hens don't have to be spent! So we've linked up through a liaison with a local egg farm that has thousands of laying hens. And we've been told we're welcome to as many spent hens as we want.

While we certainly can't house them all, we expect to take 20 birds into custody at Better Farm. The hens will be welcome to come and go as they please in the grass, brush, and dirt on the property (living and playing outside for the first time!), laying eggs only if they feel like it. They'll have plenty of room to flap their wings, squawk, devour worms and bugs, and experience all the lovely North Country has to offer.

Nicole Caldwell is a self-taught environmentalist, green-living savant and
sustainability educator with more than a decade of professional writing
experience. She is also the co-founder of Better Farm and president of
betterArts. Nicole’s work has been featured in Mother Earth News, Reader’s
Digest, Time Out New York, and many other publications. Her first book,
Better: The Everyday Art of Sustainable Living, is due out this July
through New Society Publishers.

Better Farm

Coming home to roost.

Monday mornings with Finnegan. ❤️

Queen.

Kobayashi Maru, patron saint of Better Farm, maxing in a patch of tall grass on a perfectly sunny day.

GREAT day for a ride!

So inspiring to be part of this evening’s Health and Wellness Fair at LaFargeville Central School, where students are on the cutting edge of sustainable practices with on-site vertical gardens, Brita Hydration Stations in the hallways, dual-flush toilets in the bathrooms, solar panels and wind turbines providing power, and rubber-rolled roofing reflecting sunlight off the building. And that’s just the beginning! These folks have earned their Silver LEED certification and it was a pleasure to make art and plant garlic with so many exceptional humans. 🙌🏼

Sunday brunchin’

Mighty productive Saturday morning as we raze an old shed and rescue a 19th-century stone wall from Better Farm’s original barn. Stay tuned...

Each year, we commit to adding at least 100 trees on Better Farm’s property, with 2018 marking our 800th tree going into the ground. We’re celebrating with 50 white spruces, a dozen or so fruit trees, several hardwoods, flowering beauties like peony trees and hydrangeas, and a slew of willows. The baby spruces arrived today and are taking a soak before being tucked into their new homes.

Repost from @habituallyhaley — Sunday funday hangs in the yoga trapeze at @betterfarm

Big thanks to SUNY ESF’s Society for Ecological Restoration group for helping to install this living wall in one of the bathrooms at Better Farm. Bathrooms, with all their steam and moisture, are perfect places for living wall installations featuring vines, spider plants and succulents.

Students from SUNY-ESF’s Society for Ecological Restoration have officially infiltrated Better Farm for a weekend of unwinding, team building, family meals, seed starting and a little heavy lifting.

Happy Easter!

Origami farm.

Aquaponic fish hard at work. The fish we raise in our aquaponics system are cast aways from fairs, given to us by folks who no longer want them, or are minnows left over from fishermen’s lake excursions. Every spring, we release several of the biggest fish into a pond on the property so they can enjoy a cushy retirement with tons of space and adventures. Our way of saying thanks for them helping us grow tasty greens all year long. 🐟